Despite an increase in December factory orders, the markets fell during the midday as confidence in the economy continued to waver. The Dow dropped 64 points to 12,680 while Nasdaq fell 14 points to 2399.

In the broad market, declining issues outpaced advancers by a margin of nearly 5 to 4 on the NYSE and by more than 10 to 9 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks lost 3 ponts to 727.